


Last Rites

by pineovercoat



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: (canon-typical heartbreak honestly), Angst and Tragedy, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Dark Aqua (Kingdom Hearts), F/M, Fate Worse Than Death, I'm Sorry, Implied Relationships, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Not A Fix-It, Speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-24
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-07-16 05:22:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16079306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pineovercoat/pseuds/pineovercoat
Summary: For years, he has watched over the Keyblade Graveyard, waiting for the chance to set things right.She has other plans.





	Last Rites

**Author's Note:**

> haha so. after that latest TGS gameplay reveal, _I_ got norted and was possessed by this idea. All that’s left in my heart is misery and despair, and I want _you_ to feel it. On the flip side... I've only had Dark Aqua for 2 trailers now but I'm already so deeply and pretentiously in love, here's my maudlin ode, I can't believe canon has my number so hard, I live for the drama, bye
> 
> more explanation in the end notes in case the tags scare you, but uh, definitely in-story spoilers, haha

There was no fanfare when she came. One moment there was nothing, the badlands as forsaken as they’d ever been, and the very next, she was there.

Darkness followed her, clinging stubbornly to her heels even as it seeped into the earth below, spilling out like ink, like oil, like blood. She was carrying a keyblade that he had never seen before, but there was something about it that resonated. Whatever was left of him, scattered across the worlds and dragged around by forces stronger than he could have ever realized- some distant part of his heart had a fragile connection to this keyblade, had felt its sting, knew intimately its rage.

It had been so long.

Years had passed. Not with haste, nor leisure- simply in empty, wasting silence. A worthless sentry, he stood watch as the stars winked out one by one. The nights went on, and he held his post, even as moons waxed and waned and waxed again and meteor showers scattered over a sky that was growing emptier and colder. It had become a graveyard too; he kept the vigil above his head and below his feet. He bore witness, but never alone. Regret was persistent company, and sorrow made three.

In the years that passed, he had dreamt or felt or imagined much, unsure of what was real, of what was him or what was _them._ There was the boy he’d chosen, no, the boy he’d _cursed_ , falling just as he had- and in the wake, his power, taken up by another- there was the worlds’ end and their salvation- there was the Door, and the fleeting light of Kingdom Hearts- a castle with white walls and ever changing rooms- a horrible, gnawing emptiness- his own defeat at the hands of the power he’d bequeathed- the beginning of the end-

He fought without a body, saw without eyes, mourned without a heart. He had forgotten the wind on his face and the warmth of the sun and the joy in her smile. It had been so long. But even with his spirit so torn and shredded- this echo, a revenant bound to its armor prison- even so, he knew her.

Her hair was white, her hands were red, her eyes were a great and terrible gold; there was little left of the light he once knew in that face. Her spirit was hardened and sharpened until it was the edge of a knife. She was beautiful. She was horrible.

Even so changed, he would know her anywhere. _“Aqua."_

“How long has it been since I heard that name?” Her voice was strangely hollow. It rasped, dragging over the words like her boots scraped over the cracked and ruined earth. “It’s good to be remembered, for a change.”

The bitterness in it was unmistakable- but of course he remembered her. Even if memory was the most fairweather of friends- even if almost everything he’d known had slipped away- he still held on to the most important things. Ven, Aqua, his father Eraqus, and the monster who had stolen it all, the deceiver Xehanort.

“ _You-_ ” he tried, struggling to force his words through the barrier- the bonds that chained him here, preventing him from moving on.

“Is this all that’s left?” Her eyes flickered over him- that inhuman yellow flinty in its intensity. She held the keyblade out, pointing it straight and true at his chest. “I spent twelve years in the realm of darkness thinking I saved him. That what I did mattered.”

Dust kicked up from her feet as she moved, cutting a circling path around him. It blew across the no-man’s land between them. It really wasn’t so far to her side- just a few paces forward, and it had been so long...

He held the line.

“Twelve years.” She swung the keyblade sharply to her side, bringing her red, red hand before her. Swift as a lighting strike, she settled, standing straight-backed and proud. “I won’t let it be for nothing.”

Had it really been twelve years? But time didn’t matter now. He stood before her, perhaps not as whole, but just as real. They were both in the realm of light. There was only one other thing that could matter now. “ _Ven,_ ” he rasped.

“ _No._ ” Her face curled into a snarl. “You will _never_ find him _._ ”

“ _Aqua_.” He reached for her, palm outstretched. “ _Ven… where.._.”

She stiffened, bristling. The air around her roiled; waves of darkness rose from her like rippling heat, and the night sky grew heavier with it, pressing in around them from all sides. “No! You won’t _touch_ _him_ -!”

She leapt forward, and reality bent around her. One moment, she was there, and the next, there was nothing. He spun wildly. He still felt her, felt that darkness, though the horizon was devoid of life in every direction. Where did she-?

A blow struck across his back, spitting sparks and throwing him to the ground. He rallied, turning to block the next strike that would surely rain from above, but she blinked out of sight as soon as he laid eyes on her. Rising to his feet, he turned this way and that, searching for her, the subtle changes in the wind and the raking of her armor his only omens-

There was another stutter in reality, and she had the blade to his neck.

“You’re not Terra,” she said, sure. “You could never be him. I won’t make that mistake again.”

_Terra._ That was his name. He tried saying it out loud, and she recoiled.

“No,” she spat. “He’s gone. You’re nothing but a _fragment.”_

Her words cut, but she wasn’t wrong.

“He’s gone,” she repeated, insistent, pressing the edge harder against his throat. Her blood red hands tightened around the hilt. They did not go white at the knuckles. “But not lost. I can fix this.” Her eyes flickered to his keyblade. “I can make this right.”

It was a moment’s distraction, but enough for him to press his advantage. She’d left herself vulnerable, and her rage had blinded her. After all, what did his neck matter- his prison, this armor, was hollow. He had no body. Hers, though tempered by darkness, still felt pain. He brought the hilt against her gut, and as she doubled over, heaving, he swept the blade across her front. She reared back, stumbling, but recovered quickly; the look in her eyes told him he would pay double for what he’d taken.

Strange. So he could still feel pain too.

Heartache settled over him like a mantle, and he finally allowed himself to believe what was before him. The darkness- it had taken her. Aqua, who had been the best and brightest of them all. Aqua, who had been so strong, so righteous, so unwavering-

She couldn't be allowed to go to Ventus. She couldn't be allowed to _lead_ them to Ventus. They would surely find a way to break her too. After all, she had been their best and brightest, the only one fit for the title of Master, and even she had fallen. She wasn’t weak, no, far from it- but with her heart so imbued- if Xehanort found her- if one of his _others_ found her-

He had to stop her.

Once again, destiny pit his blade against hers. _No winners. Only truths_.

Prowling, she swept in tight circles around him, stalking him like a beast. She’d always been agile, but now, she was like the water itself. She was all places at once, flowing to the next opening swift as a current, rising and falling with unpredictable fury. She flickered in and out of existence, reappearing only to unleash hell and whirl quickly out of the way. He managed to meet her blow for blow, holding his ground, but her attacks were overwhelming in their frequency, fueled by an inhuman grief and rage.

“ _Enough_ ,” she declared.

Her hand whipped to her side, darkness rising to meet it. It surrounded him, draining him- he felt his strength fade and leech away as her fingers tightened. She saw her chance, and brought her blade cracking against his helm. There was the sound of shattering glass- the pieces flew away in a spray, landing at her feet. She ground them into the dirt with her heels, harsh and unrepentant, and with a lifted hand they rose too, growing and becoming pillars of spinning ice, the mirrored glass at their base amplified and twirling around him, reflecting his failures, the worst of who he’d been and who he was-

_Terra_. They whispered their secrets for him alone. _Not just a murderer, but a coward too, so much has happened and you're to blame for all of it, and here you hide, clinging to an existence you don’t deserve, you are weak, you’ll stray again and again, you can save nothing and no one_ -

Violently, he resisted. Too little too late. The spires crashed into him, and the crawling ice encased him, slowing his movements to nothing. She gave a harsh cry like the awful shriek of a carrion bird, and the rest was an inevitability. He slipped; she struck true. It had always been their rhythm.

Defeated, he fell to his knees, burying his keyblade in the dirt before him. So, in the end, his strength was outdone by her skill. It made sense. After all, this had always been their dance.

With his strength spent, and his connection to the light thin but stubborn, all there was left to do was wait. She was silent for a time, but after a few moments, there was that telltale click of metal- her boots scuffing the dry, cracked earth. He saw killing intent in every muscle- a snake poised to strike. Her eyes, though- they were calm. Mournful. A storm’s center.

She knelt before him.

“You never could beat me.” There was no real arrogance in it- her words were too hollow for that. There was only pain and acceptance. It was a familiar feeling.

“But this won’t be for nothing,” she promised, placing a hand over his shattered faceplate. With her thumb and index finger, she brushed over the ruined glass- closing a fallen warrior’s eyes, laying them to rest at last. “We’ll be together again. All of us. I’ll make sure of it.”

Her hand shifted, curling around the back of the helm, as gentle as she’d ever been. These were the same hands that carefully healed wounds, stitched together childish good luck charms, that sparred and trained and teased and hugged- now they tangled with his over the hilt of the _Ends of the Earth_. She brought her lips to the glass, whispering her vow against it. “I will destroy Xehanort. And you’ll be with me, every step of the way.”

He bent his head, a concession to the truth of it. It didn’t take much effort for her to wrest the blade from his hand after that.

“Peace, old friend,” she murmured.

She moved, and with a flash of light and a horrible metallic shriek, she drove the _Ends of the Earth_ through his chest.

Peace.

Such an strange sentiment. There was no ‘ _peace_ ’, not for an existence like his- only an end. And he felt his coming, the ply of the thread keeping his spirit here splitting. It was almost done. Almost, but not yet- He held on, fighting the encroaching dark, reaching out for purchase, for something- there were still stars out there, a beacon to guide the way, something unbreakable, a hope to hold on to-

She bent low, placing a hand over his. It was distantly familiar, but how, he couldn’t recall. The only thing he knew was that this time, it felt discordant, wrong. And there was so little time left-

“I’m with you,” she murmured. Her palm settled against his shoulder, and she pushed him away as she pulled the blade backward. “Go.”

It was enough.

After that, there was only light.

**Author's Note:**

> Notes: look LOOK I’m of the opinion Aqua isn’t/won’t be norted (I just don’t see her siding with the dude that destroyed her entire found family unless her spirit is so weakened as to be possessed but ANYWAY) I think she’s just… fallen?? and I like thinking about how maybe the love for her friends that helped her to survive over a decade in the Realm of Darkness will still be there, and be one of her strongest motivations, but just… twisted and warped into ‘I will get my family back and absolutely nothing will stand in my way’. And since the system in KH lore appears to be that destroying the parts (Nobody, Heartless, and perhaps the Missing Ingredience, a scrap of soul (question mark?) stuck in a suit of armor) is what will recreate the whole... Aqua's gonna Get Terra Back by any means necessary
> 
> once again, a huge thank you to [sirladysketch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SirLadySketch/pseuds/SirLadySketch) for her thoughtful suggestions, patient beta-ing, for putting up with me in general, and for giving me this to listen to while writing, perf mood: [[x]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDflVhOpS4E)
> 
> p.s. the working title for this gdoc was ‘this bitch empty, yeet’. sorry lingering will ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯  
> this has nothing to do with any hard feelings over your boss fight, pinky swear


End file.
